Fellowship of the reel forced to split

Robert W. WelkosMarch 4 2002

In what could prove to be a more momentous disappearing act - certainly for the film makers - than Bilbo's party farewell in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the four credited producers of the film have agreed to let arbitrators decide which one of the four will not get to step up on stage next month should the film be named Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

It is a wrenching decision for the tightly knit group of film makers, who laboured in New Zealand to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's 1954 fantasy novel to the screen, said executive producer Mark Ordesky. The film received 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

But in the end, the producers, who include the film's Oscar-nominated director, Peter Jackson, decided that their friendships and future business relationships were too important to cast ballots to see who would stay and who must be jettisoned.

As a result, Ordesky said, choosing which three producers to list as nominees will be left with the producers branch executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The committee must settle the issue before the academy holds its annual pre-Oscar luncheon for nominees on March 11.

The Lord of the Rings is one of three Oscar-nominated films caught in the academy's credit squeeze. Disney/Pixar's Monsters, Inc. and Paramount/Nickelodeon's Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which are up for Best Picture in Oscar's new feature animation category, are being asked to submit the name of a key creative contributor for each film who will be eligible to accept the Oscar. Sources say that each studio is leaning toward letting the academy's short films and feature animation branch executive committee name that person.");document.write("

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The academy's move to limit the number of producers on stage to three was applauded by the Producers Guild of America, which has long lobbied for studios to rein in the practice of dispensing producing credits to people who have little or nothing to do with making the movie.

The three-producer rule was enacted two years ago by the producers branch after five producers took the stage in 1999 to accept Oscars for Miramax Films' Shakespeare in Love. One of those was Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein, who was listed as a producer in the credits. During the show, he joined other producers on the stage and gave an acceptance speech, leaving producer Ed Zwick trying to get his turn at the microphone before the orchestra started up again.

It was reported afterwards that Zwick considered this incident a "mugging", and published reports say he later recalled that at that moment on stage he had a choice "between a random act of violence before a viewing public of 2 billion people or false modesty".

This year, the academy has toughened its rules, specifically ruling that studio executives and personal managers are ineligible to take the stage or receive a statuette for Best Picture unless they have fully functioned as producers on the picture.

In the case of The Lord of the Rings, academy executive director Bruce Davis expressed hope that the film makers themselves would choose which one of the four producers would be dropped from the list of nominees, noting that up to now the academy has never arbitrated the issue.

"In the two prior years, the creators themselves have always made the decision," he said.

But in a telephone interview from Wellington, New Zealand, where Jackson and his crew are deep into post-production on the second of the $300 million Ring trilogy, executive producer Ordesky said the film makers want the academy to decide.

Ordesky, who is also president of New Line's art house label Fine Line Features, said the producers had been aware of the academy's three-producer rule before the movie was submitted. The producers include Jackson, co-screenwriter Frances Walsh, Barrie M. Osborne and Tim Sanders.

"Since they don't allow more than three names, we decided mutually that rather than sort it out among ourselves, it might be more fair to have a third party - an objective, impartial body - make the decision," Ordesky said.

Sanders, Jackson and Walsh are all New Zealanders who have worked together on Rings and Jackson's 1996 film, The Frighteners. Sources noted that Sanders was involved in the entire pre-production phase of Rings but departed the project three months into the 15-month shoot. And when the producers guild announced the nominees for its annual Producer of the Year honours last Thursday, missing from the list of producers on The Lord of the Rings was Sanders.

Osborne, a veteran producer with such credits as Face/Off and The Matrix, joined the Rings project in April, 1999, while Sanders was still with the film. A veteran action producer, Osborne was brought on board to help oversee Jackson's massive production, which had a cast and crew of 2500.

In the case of the Disney/Pixar film, Monsters, Inc., Pixar must decide whether producer Darla K Anderson will be the designated recipient or Pixar founder John Lasseter, who is credited as an executive producer on the movie. Pixar did not return telephone calls seeking a response as to what course it might follow, but sources close to the film said Pixar may let the academy arbitrate the issue.